Best Kept Secret
by Kishiro Kitsune
Summary: Hogwarts AU. Between their duties as Head Boy and Girl and keeping up with their grades, it's hard for Pidge and Keith to find time to be together. Still, they manage to steal moments whenever they can.


**Best Kept Secret**

Katie "Pidge" Holt carefully finished buttoning her collared shirt and then attempted to smooth out the wrinkles with her hands before deeming herself presentable. She smiled as hands reached out, pulling her back against a warm body, but didn't put up a fuss even as her clothing was rumpled once again.

"Don't forget your tie," a low, husky voice murmured in her ear.

She shivered as he draped the silk tie around her neck, moving her hair out of the way to do so. She tilted her head back. "Keith..."

Keith chuckled as he bowed his head, kissing her deeply.

"You gave me the wrong tie," Pidge breathlessly accused as they parted. Even without looking, she knew the colors of the tie around her neck were yellow and black, rather than the green and silver of her own House.

"Is it?" Keith asked in a tone that was just on the side of sounding too innocent.

Pidge giggled and kissed him again, unable to help herself. "Just one more week," she reminded him, her voice full of promise. She turned in his arms, taken by the need to hug him. She felt his arms shift around her, readjusting to make her more comfortable.

"I can't wait to get out of here," Keith admitted. "One more week and we won't have to deal with House prejudices anymore. No one will bat an eye over our relationship."

Pidge pressed her face against his shoulder and, for a moment, she said nothing. Then, in a quiet voice, made a confession of her own. "I keep envisioning the End of Term feast. Us walking in together. You sweeping me up in your arms and... and kissing me, right there in front of everyone."

She could feel Keith's sharp intake of breath.

"Is that really what you want?" he asked.

"Yes," she whispered back.

It terrified her, how much she wanted it. She was tired of all of the sneaking around, of the lies she told to avoid suspicion. For so long, she'd wanted to reveal the truth, but it wasn't possible thanks to the state her House was in. One day she hoped things would be different, but at the moment it wasn't possible to tell everyone without risking her safety or Keith's.

But graduation was upon them. In a week's time, they would board the Hogwarts Express one final time. They would spend a few weeks at home awaiting their NEWT scores before setting out on new paths. Keith, she knew, already had a place as a trainee for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement thanks to Shiro. And Pidge was all set with an apprenticeship in Spellcrafting with a Master who took only the brightest and most passionate as her pupils.

"Would you wear my tie then too?" Keith asked.

Pidge blinked, pulled out of her thoughts and back to their conversation. She drew away so she could smile up at him. "I'd like that. A lot. We should at least follow one great Hogwarts tradition before we leave."

Keith returned her own tie, draping it around her neck in the same fashion as before, and then reclaimed his own. "Not that anyone will be paying attention to it while we're snogging in front of them."

"It's the meaning that counts," Pidge said, reluctantly backing away to finish neatening up before they headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast – separately, of course. She was aware of Keith's eyes on her as she walked around to gather up her few scattered belongings. The room they'd commandeered for their "sleepovers" was a fascinating one, but they weren't sure what would happen to their stuff if they left anything behind.

"You know, we could sneak down to the kitchens for food. Spend the rest of the day together... No one would notice we were gone," he tried to convince her.

Pidge raised an eyebrow, despite being secretly pleased by the attempt. "Keith, _everyone_ would notice if the Head Boy and Girl disappeared for most of the day. At the very least, Lance would convince the other Prefects that we've been kidnapped, or something equally as ridiculous."

Keith recognized that he'd been beat. His shoulders slumped as he began to gather his own things. "I'll see you tonight then? For the Prefect dinner?"

"I'd forgotten that was tonight," Pidge murmured, more to herself. "Yeah, I'll see you there." She shouldered her bag, double checking to make sure she had everything. The only exam she had left was Ancient Runes and she wanted to squeeze in a little extra time to review her notes before then.

Her mind was already miles away, cataloging everything she needed to get done for the day. After breakfast was review, and then another unnecessary meeting with the Slytherin seventh year Prefect, Lotor, who seemed to think his opinion of who would make a good Head Boy or Girl for the next year was Very Important. After that no-doubt exhausting ordeal was lunch and then it was off to the last of her final exams. Her only plan after that was to relax with a long, warm bubble bath before she had to prep for the End-of-Term dinner where she and Keith would announce their picks for next year's Head Boy and Girl.

All-in-all, Pidge had a busy day ahead of her.

Keith smiled fondly as he watched her, knowing the exact moment her attention turned to something else. It was actually nice, knowing she trusted him enough to let her guard down. He couldn't wait for the day they could get their own place together – nothing too big, but not so cramped they couldn't have their individual space. Pidge would definitely need an office of her own for all of her projects...

He shook his head.

They weren't ready for that step yet, he knew, but it was nice to think about.

"Hey," he called to get her attention. He waited until he was sure she was paying attention to him before telling her he was heading down to the Great Hall.

"Oh, okay. I'll see you tonight," Pidge said distantly.

Keith wanted to linger for a while, but he knew he needed to get down to breakfast soon, so when Pidge followed a few minutes later she'd have enough time to eat. "Don't study too hard. And if you need me to hex Lotor for you, just say the word."

Pidge grinned, fully snapping out of her daze at the old joke. "As always, your offer is tempting. Careful, or I may actually take you up on that."

After that playful exchange, Keith left the room in high spirits and carefully made his way to breakfast through use of several secret passages to disguise the fact that he was traveling down from the seventh floor rather than up from the dungeons. It was unlikely that anyone would question the Head Boy about why he was patrolling the halls so early in the morning. He'd always had a penchant for roaming with no real goal in mind except to learn his way around, and as it was the last week of his final year, he felt he could easily convince even the nosiest of people that it was a walk driven by nostalgia. (Which wasn't completely a lie. Hogwarts was a second home to him and he would miss it.)

Keith encountered no one else on his travel and was soon sitting at the Hufflepuff table next to Shay, who leaned over to discuss that night's dinner as he began helping himself to food.

"Hunk wishes to know if you're sure two dozen of his homemade biscuits are enough for dessert," she said.

Keith raised his eyes to glance over at the Ravenclaw table, where the seventh year Prefect of that House sat talking to a rather nervous-looking pair of first years. "Two dozen is fine. Honestly, he doesn't need to make anything; the house elves have it covered."

"Ah," Shay said, fiddling with her fork. "I know. He's just nervous, that's all. It's the last time we'll have a meeting together, you know? I think... I think he just wants to leave a good impression. So no one forgets him."

"That's _not_ going to happen," Keith said firmly. "Even if Lance didn't throw a huge party for his birthday and invite the whole school _every year_ , we'd still find some reason to meet up. All of us. Except for Lotor."

Shay giggled.

Keith would have to make a note to have Hunk over sometime during the summer. He was sure Shiro and Adam wouldn't mind the company.

Things were bound to change once they graduated, but that didn't mean _everything_ had to change. The relationships they'd formed at school were important and while there was every chance they could drift apart over the years, he wanted to hope that they were ones that would last.

He glanced up at the double doors leading into the Great Hall just in time to see Pidge arrive and slip quietly over to the Slytherin table. Next to him, Shay sighed in disappointment and he knew he'd started smiling at the sight of his girlfriend.

Keith schooled his face into what he hoped was a neutral expression. "What?"

"There's only a week left, you know. That's not much time to tell her how you feel," Shay told him.

Keith could feel his face heating up. She'd been on his case for three months about working up the courage to confess his feelings to Pidge, having apparently decided that he'd been harboring a secret crush on her since the start of term. He wanted to tell Shay the truth, but knew she'd accidentally tell Hunk, who would then tell Lance, who would tell the entire school.

 _'One more week,'_ he reminded himself.

Shay sighed again and he felt a stab of guilt.

Maybe... maybe it wouldn't hurt to tell a few people? Their friends, at least, who wouldn't make such a big deal about it. And then they'd have support when they did reveal their relationship.

Keith would have to talk to Pidge about it later.

With that plan loosely in mind, he began to eat. He'd need his strength to get through the rest of the day.

* * *

 **NOTES**

I have a ton of thoughts for this AU, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to writing more fics for this. (Unless everyone wants more. I'm pretty easily persuaded.) Still, I'll probably post some stuff about it on tumblr (calligraphist-artemisia . tumblr . com), at least so I can get my thoughts out. But some notes for this:

\- I'm sure it's the teachers who pick Prefects and the Head Boy and Girl, but in this AU it's up to the returning students. So basically, Head Boy picks the next Head Boy and Head Girl picks the next Head Girl. The new HB and HG work with the teachers to pick the 6th year Prefects. The last week of school is used to acclimate the new HB and HG to their positions.

For Pidge and Keith's year, the roster goes something like:  
Slytherin: Pidge (Head Girl) and Lotor | Two unnamed 6th year prefects (one is probably Kinkade.)  
Hufflepuff: Keith (Head Boy) and Shay | Two unnamed 6th year prefects (Leifsdottir is one?)  
Ravenclaw: Hunk and an unnamed girl | Two unnamed 6th year prefects (Probably Rizavi)  
Gryffindor: Lance and Allura | Two unnamed 6th year prefects (you can see the pattern here. It's Griffin.)

\- Keith lives with Shiro and Adam. It's not an official adoption, but Shiro has guardianship over Keith and took him in the year after he graduated. Shiro refused to watch a friend grow up in a muggle orphanage while trying to keep up with his magical studies like he had to.

\- Things in Slytherin House are... not the best. Distrust still runs high, though Pidge has done what she can to start shifting the way things are. As much as she dislikes Lotor, he HAS helped her with that.

\- Keith wants to be an Auror, like Shiro.

\- Pidge plans on earning her Mastery in Spellcrafting so she can invent useful new things for the wizarding world, possibly mimicries of muggle technology, or at least adapting them to work in magical environments.


End file.
